Government confirms slower approach to changing EU rules
Published: 11 May 2023
The Government says it is amending the REUL Bill to be clear which laws it intends to revoke at the end of this year. This effectively removes the blanket “sunset clause” target of end 2023 for review of all EU retained Law.
Alongside this, a paper ‘Smarter Regulation to Grow the Economy’ has been published which sets out a programme of reform to reduce the burden of regulation, to maximise innovation and growth and to support UK businesses and consumers, government says. Though largely a policy and framework document it includes the intention to reform Working Time regulations.
Proposed reforms will, of course, be subject to the appropriate parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms, government says. “All Statutory Instruments that significantly reform retained EU law will be subject to the affirmative procedure and will be debated by both Houses. SIs which reform retained EU law in any limited way, which revoke retained EU law, or which restate interpretive effects will be subject to the sifting procedure, the procedure which worked well for EU Exit SIs. This is a proven method of parliamentary oversight.”
The REUL (Retained EU Law) dashboard has been updated. The dashboard gives an overview of the percentages of REUL which have already been amended, repealed, or replaced. The data used to populate the dashboard can be found here.
Stephen Phipson, CEO of Make UK, the manufacturers’ organisation said:
“ We welcome the Government’s decision to amend The Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill. Make UK has long called for an end to the blanket and unnecessary removal of EU Laws which would have posed enormous difficulty to UK manufacturers and been counterproductive.
“We also strongly applaud the Secretary of State for Business and Trade for understanding the complexity of the issue and taking a targeted approach which will concentrate on removing or improving those specific pieces of regulation which would bring about a benefit for British business. This is the right outcome for British manufacturing.”
Links:
Smarter regulation to grow the economy (policy paper)
